Lovely & Amazing Movie Review 2002

Information and Film Reviews for Lovely & Amazing the Movie

Mom Blethyn watches over her three dysfunctional daughters: Michelle (Keener), who's bored by her marriage; insecure wannabe actress Elizabeth (Mortimer) and adopted eight-year-old African-American Annie (Goodwin), who's preoccupied with her looks. Unstable Michelle begins a hopeless affair with a teenager (Gyllenhaal), while a post-coital scene between Elizabeth and lover Mulroney shows the extent of the neurotic actresses' body image problem. Annie is the least disturbed of the three sisters, who just wants to look like everyone else in the family. Led by Blethyn, the cast expertly embody their complicated, quirky characters. Skillfully written and directed study in character flaws and family by Holofcener.

Awards

This is definitely a chick flick, but it is pretty good. The Marks family consists of four women who are tightly-knit. Jane is the affluent matriarch whose 3 daughters seem to have nothing in common except for a peculiar sort of idealism. Setting the tone of vanity and insecurity, Jane is undergoing cosmetic surgery to alter her figure, but serious complications put her health in real danger. Former homecoming queen Michelle, the eldest daughter, has one daughter of her own and an alienated, unsupportive husband. Elizabeth, the middle sister, has an acting career that is beginning to take off, but is timid and insecure, and habitually relieves her trepidation by taking in stray dogs. Only the youngest sister, Annie, an adopted African American 8-year-old, stands a chance of avoiding the family legacy of anxious self-absorption. If only her intelligence and curiosity will see her through what promises to be a confusing adolescence. Each of the women seeks redemption in her own haphazard way.